Leora

The energy in the air today felt...different.

As I cleaned up the mess left behind by the entire pack after the full moon run, I could feel an energy in the halls that I had never felt before. There was a buzzing energy, as if something big was about to happen. I couldn't tell what, but many of the packmates were excited about it. For some reason, the females were especially enthusiastic about what was set to happen in a few weeks.

"I can't believe he is coming here! He hasn't visited in a long time," I heard one female say.

"I heard he is searching for his mate. That means every female in the pack will have to meet with him!" another chimed in.

Whatever was happening, it was clear that a strong male would be visiting the pack soon, and he was looking for his mate. That could be any number of powerful males in our kingdom. Alphas who weren't mated were always the talk of the pack when they planned to visit. Most of the females in our pack were omegas, and omegas tended to want an alpha as their mate. Something was appealing about being without power while the alpha held all the strength. I even hoped that I would be mated to an alpha.

But that was also so I could prove to my pack that I was worthy. If the Moon Goddess blessed me with an alpha as a mate, making me a luna, it would show everyone how I was deserving of our Goddess. That would be enough to make my life worthwhile.

Coda burst into the bathroom I had been cleaning once again to tell me the news. Her energy bounced off the walls as she spoke so quickly that it made my head spin.

"He's coming, Leora! Did you hear the news yet?"

I blinked several times at her as I tried to decipher what she said. Nothing came to me after at least a minute of staring at her. "What news?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "Silly girl. The lycan king! Alpha of the Seagrove Pack. He's coming to Redwood."

Ah. I shook my head. "I heard some things through the halls, but I didn't know it was him who was coming. Is that confirmed?" My muscles ached as I got to my feet. Scrubbing the floors on all fours yet again brought serious pain to my body. My wolf had been sleeping after healing me from yesterday's round of cleaning and the attack from Amarie.

"He's bringing that sexy beta of his, too." Coda bit her lip. "What I'd give just to have a night with him."

Watching my best friend swoon was a hilarious sight. Gunner Alabaster was undeniably attractive. I'd give her that. But seeing Coda lick her lips and her eyes spin in her head at the very thought of him made my week. Gunner came into town four years ago, and Coda had been hooked on him ever since. I wondered if he was her mate, judging by the way she was drooling over him. Since we weren't of age at the time, the bond hadn't shown itself, which was something she had been salty about. That made it fun to tease her.

"I heard he likes to have fun and doesn't want to settle down anytime soon," I commented.

She scoffed at me while grabbing a sponge from under the sink along with a cleaning spray. "So did the king. Maybe they both realized they needed to find their mates." Coda paused and thought for a moment. "Well, find someone to call their mate. Fated mates aren't being handed out like candy."

I stifled a laugh that threatened to escape. Comparing a fated mate to candy seemed fairly accurate. It was a gift from the Moon Goddess herself. It was said she created each of us with the perfect half of our soul. Finding a mate was difficult since there were so many of us across the different kingdoms. Most of the time, chosen mates were what we had to settle for due to never finding their true mate. Add in the fact that our species couldn't find their mate or bond with one until they came of age and their lycan's soul connected with them, and it felt nearly impossible to find our mate. Those who tossed this blessing aside were driven mad by their lycan. If I wanted out of this hellhole, I needed to receive this blessing from the Moon Goddess. The relief I felt when I realized no one in my pack was my mate... I can't even put it into words. I didn't want to be stuck here in this pack.

I wanted to be free.

Free from this pitiful life I had to call my own. Free from dealing with people who believed I was unworthy to call myself a wolf. Even to find a mate.

So many people in this pack have said the Moon Goddess couldn't be so cruel as to give me away as a fated mate, and that I would be a punishment, not a blessing. It's been said so many times over the years that I started to believe those words. Except in times like this.

If the king was traveling to find his mate, maybe when he stopped here, I could ask him for a transfer. He was the king. Amarie wouldn't allow it because it would be a "burden" to let me go to another pack when I could barely stand on my own after my cleaning shifts. The king, however, could override her.

"You think Alpha Brennan would allow me to have an audience with him just to ask for a transfer?"

Coda's eyes widened, but then softened at my question. This wasn't the first time I had talked about transferring to another pack. She didn't like the idea of that happening because it meant I'd leave her here by herself to deal with this pack. No one in this pack respected the omegas. Everyone left trash around the pack house and made everything dirty enough that it required a complete cleaning by the crack of dawn. It was a mess for the omegas to clean every day, mostly for me to clean along with Coda, because we worked harder than everyone else. I tried to tell Coda not to befriend me because she would become a pack reject, just like me. She wouldn't listen.

I loved that about her.

"Well, from the sounds of it, he wants to meet with every female to find out if she is his mate or not. If she isn't, she is to meet with Beta Gunner. Use your time to ask him for the transfer if he isn't your mate."

It was my turn to scoff. "Me? His mate? Yeah, right." I returned to all fours to continue the deep cleaning of the floors. "I am weak because my wolf has no power. I'm basically a human who can somehow shift into a furry creature every few months. That doesn't sound like the makings of a queen."

Coda gasped. "Do you really think that low of yourself?"

I looked at her.

"You are so much more than that, Leora. Maybe the reason your wolf isn't strong is that you don't have faith in her."

That, I knew, wasn't true. I believed in my wolf more than anyone else in the pack. Even if she was weaker, my wolf was a patient creature. She had to be when she was tied to me. On my bad days, she was the gentle soul who coaxed me into relaxing instead of falling into the rapid, harmful cycle of my thoughts. As I healed every night from pushing my body past the limit it could handle from cleaning, she was there to work through the pain and bring me enough relief to get some sleep.

My wolf was an incredible creature. I was more than blessed to have her as mine. I just wish she had bonded with someone far superior to me. She deserved to be queen more than I did. From her patience alone, she deserved a mate who would shower her with all the gifts and love throughout her life.

You deserve that, too. Not just me, she rumbled in my mind.

I don't feel that way since I can't seem to make anyone happy, I replied.

Shush. You make me happy. I chose you because you are stronger than you give yourself credit for. You survived Amarie and the alpha all these years.

I survived because of Coda.

No, Leora. You survived because of you! You are strong and worthy of love. Coda is drawn to that, and someday soon, others will be as well.

My wolf always says these things to me, but I haven't been able to fully believe those words. It's kind of hard to believe you are meant for something greater than cleaning a pack house when you are told that's all you're worth every day since you were a kid. Mistakes happen, but to Amarie, the demand for perfection was unmatched.

"No one is perfect, little one. Not even that wicked stepmom of yours. If she were perfect, she'd treat you like a daughter and not a burden." The gentle caress of my wolf's presence flooded through me. She needed me to know she was here for me, something I always loved about her. The comfort of her presence also brought on a wave of healing, loosening the tension in my shoulders.

"It's hard not to think like that with a dad like mine," I whispered.

Coda poked her head out into the hallway, making sure no one would overhear me speaking ill of the alpha-something my father would punish harshly if he found out. She kneeled to be eye level with me and wore a sympathetic smile. "I see you, my friend. You are so much more than what your father makes you believe. If it weren't for you, this pack would descend into chaos."

Oh, how wonderful it would be if that were true! I wasn't the heart of this pack. My mother was, when she was alive, and before my father made Amarie his new bride, he was the heart-a rapidly blackening heart who ruled with an iron fist.

Leora

After Coda helped me finish up the bathroom stalls in the Alpha's quarters, I moved down to the pack house. The hall was my first port of call. The one thing Amarie did well was ensure the omegas were left to handle the cleaning and that certain areas were blocked off so we could do a thorough job before he let them back in. While I was in the bathroom, many of the pack seemed to mingle downstairs while the cleaning happened upstairs. After I finished in the bathroom, I could hear everyone throughout the house. I needed to work fast.

If time hadn't been on my side before everyone moved upstairs, I'd be in for it. My conversation with Coda put me behind my usual schedule. I normally had the top floor completely clean by now. As I heard approaching footsteps on the stairs, I filled the bucket with water and soap and pulled it into the hallway to complete my last task on this floor. The gait of the approaching person made me tremble. This wasn't who I expected to come up here at this time of day. This couldn't be good.

I moved too quickly, twisting my foot awkwardly, and tripped over the bucket. My body crashed to the ground, and pain radiated through me from the fall. I grabbed my shoulder, which had taken the brunt of it, and then something cold and wet coated my side. At first, I thought it was blood, but then I realized it would be warm, not cold. I looked over to see the bucket on its side. What I felt was the cleaning water.

With Alpha Brennan and his son Caleb coming.

And Alpha Brennan hated messes.

"What is the meaning of this?" he snarled as he reached the top of the stairs. Caleb's gaze raked over me, and when our eyes met, I felt a strange zap of electricity. "What did you do?"

Shit. This was not good. It wouldn't matter that it was an accident. What mattered was that I had made a mistake. Again.

"It's alright, Father. She just tripped over and fell," Caleb defended, moving over to try and help me up, but the zap of electricity made him step back again.

My wolf screamed MATE in my head, and I groaned internally.

Fuck my life.

Alpha Brennan gasped. Then his eyes hardened to two hard stones. "Caleb? Go back to the house."

Caleb stalled, confused. "But Father..."

"Back to the house with you!" Alpha Brennan growled menacingly, making Caleb squirm. The young Alpha gave me one last frustrated look before disappearing down the corridor and out of the pack house.

My wolf whined, a dull ache engulfing my chest. When Alpha Brennan's claws dug into my scalp, and I felt the pressure of my hair being pulled as I was dragged to my feet, my wolf surged to the surface to keep me calm. It didn't work. My body shook as my eyes met Alpha Brennan's brown ones, which were glowing gold with the rage warring inside him.

I cast my gaze down to avoid provoking him further. My feet dangled off the ground, and my head felt like it would explode if he didn't put me down soon. I couldn't risk doing anything to piss him off further-one wrong move, and he'd hurl me down the stairs.

His son, Caleb, was my fated mate.

I needed no soothsayer to tell me that Alpha Brennan heavily disapproves of it.

"No son of mine is having a weak excuse of an Omega as a fated mate. It has never happened in the history of our pack, and it won't start with me. I'll make sure of it."

When my feet finally touched the ground, I felt a little relief, but then Alpha Brennan yanked my hair and dragged me down the stairs with a fistful of my hair wrapped around his hand, knuckles white. I couldn't tell which hurt worse-the hairs being ripped from my head or the pressure on my scalp from being dragged. Either way, my vision blurred with stinging tears that filled my eyes. I tried to lessen the pain by putting my hands on Alpha Brennan's, but I heard him snarl in response. There was nothing else for me to do other than let him do what he wanted right then. I was at his mercy.

Which was the worst thing to be?

After two sets of stairs, my heart thumped louder in my chest than anything else. It was the only thing I could hear outside of my Alpha Brennan's growling. If anyone witnessed this, they wouldn't dare help me. Anyone who got between the alpha and someone he wanted to punish ended up dead. We could only be heading toward the dungeon.

Unfortunately, I was proven right. When we reached the bottom of a near-endless staircase, I was swallowed by the darkness of the dungeon's depths. Brennan dropped me to the ground, and I shook violently as I waited for the punishment. I knew better than to think this was over. This was far from over. His movements were fast, and suddenly, his hands were around my wrists, yanking me to my feet. I felt the rope scratch at my skin as it was pulled up above my head. Before I knew it, my feet weren't on the ground, and the rope bit into my skin enough to draw blood. I dangled above the ground, and my shoulders screamed from the pain as I waited for what came next.

The alpha stepped into view, the yellow lights above glinting off his shaved head. The menacing look on his face made my blood run cold. His muscles rippled underneath his button-up shirt as he unbuttoned the cuffs to roll them above his elbows. I knew what this meant. If I wanted to survive, I needed to drift off into my happy place. He wouldn't be satisfied with the results until I was unconscious. Sometimes, he threw a bucket of cold water on me to wake me up so he could start over again.

As I went back to that field and dreamed of my mate, who would take me away from all of this, I felt his fist connect with my side. I sucked in a breath, knowing that if I screamed, it would only send him into a worse fit of rage. If I wanted to live long enough to meet the king and request to leave this pack, I needed to endure this.

A punch to my temple came quicker than I expected. I don't know how much time had passed, but when I came to, I was in a cell at the end of the hallway. This was so that even if someone came down here, they wouldn't see me, and I'd be stuck until Brennan came back for me. Who knows how long that would be? Days, most likely. The last time I was in here, it took him four days before he released me. I expected this to go the same way.

I didn't understand how Caleb could be my mate. He...just wasn't who I was expecting based on my dreams. He wasn't the gold-eyed man who came to me.

Maybe the gold-eyed man was only a figment of my imagination, my wolf supplied in a tiny voice.

It could be.

While tucking my knees into my chest, I curled into a ball to bring myself some warmth as I lay on the stone floor against the stone wall. The bars of the cage added to the coldness of the room, and my body ached as I moved.

Leora

I stayed in the dungeon for two days before Caleb came to visit me. During this time, I was barely given any food or treated oformy wounds. Life in the pack continued, with no one coming for me. Amara couldn't save me even if she wanted to, and I knew she was worried out of her goddamn mind. Each night was spent crying and praying for a miracle.

My wolf had retreated to the deepest part of my mind, weaker than ever, and sad that she could do nothing to help. Even if I managed to shift, I couldn't rip the dungeon's iron bars apart. I wasn't that strong.

After the second day, I heard firm footsteps coming down the staircase, but I was too weak to care. My stomach rumbled, empty. My mouth tasted bitter, and the blood from my wounds had all dried up, but still needed stitches. When Caleb drew the iron bars apart, his eyes landing on me with an inscrutable expression, my wolf resurfaced, chanting MATE with all ferocity.

Quiet, I chided her. You don't know what he might do to us. He might be like his father.

But he's here, my wolf protested. That counts for something.

Let's watch and see, I replied.

Caleb stepped into the dungeon and knelt in front of me, his large hands finding my face and going over the bruises caused by his father's strong grip around my neck. I held my breath, my eyes closed. He sighed. "I'm so sorry. So so sorry. I should never have left you alone with him."

I pursed my lips, wondering where he was going with this. My wolf wagged her tail happily.

See! I told you!

Oh, shut up, I said.

Caleb swooped me off the floor, bridal-style, and I melted into his arms. I didn't have to retreat into my happy place in my mind because it was playing out in reality. I couldn't believe it. Alpha Brennan's son, Caleb, the most sought-after Alpha of the Redwood Pack, was my mate, and he was here, saving me from a cruel fate caused by his father. It was all too good to be true.

He carried me up the staircase and out into the pack house's open. My entire body ached, and it got worse when I kept hearing gasps from anyone we came across. I was too weak to observe with my eyes, so I just kept my head close to his chest, enjoying his warmth and manly pheromones. His biceps were so firm, and when he carried me into the pack clinic, lowering me onto a bed, I got an excuse to touch them. Boy, they were so strong.

He pushed my hair back from my eyes and kissed my dirtied forehead softly. "Rest here for a while, my love. The pack nurse will treat you shortly."

I nodded. "Thank you," I said weakly.

"You're welcome."

-

Caleb stayed by my side the entire morning and afternoon, and only left for an hour or two when Alpha Brennan called. The pack nurse stitched me up really well, and I was given food, so I had gotten stronger to sit up and even talk. Amara still hadn't come to see me, and I took it as she might have been getting overworked by Amarie or Luna Celestine. When Caleb got back after he met with his father, I noticed a troubled expression on his face.

"You're up," he said absentmindedly, coming to sit beside me on the small clinic bed. He was bigger, so he took up more space, but I didn't mind. We, sitting in proximity, seemed like a scene out of my wildest dreams, and the air around us buzzed with lukewarm electricity caused by our attraction to each other. "Hope you're comfortable?"

I nodded. "I-I-I can't t-thank you enough for everything. Really, you've tried for me."

He shrugged. "What are mates for?"

My heart swelled with pride.

Mates.

Tears sprang to my eyes. I couldn't believe my luck.

He drew me closer, so that I sat on his lap. I rested my head on his chest, and the tears finally fell. All these years of pain, all these years of sorrow, of hard work, of abuse, of everything bad. It was all coming to an end. I, a weak excuse of an Omega, finally had a mate.

He saved me. Caleb. My mate. My Alpha.

I drifted to a calm sleep. Nothing could go wrong now. Nothing at all.

Nothing.

-

I woke up in darkness, cuffed on both wrists.

Again.

"What is going on?" I exhaled, my voice echoing against the dungeon walls. I couldn't believe my eyes. How did I get down here again?

My wolf whined, confused. I was still in my clinic gown, my stitches intact. "Caleb? Amara? Hello?! Is someone out there?"

What could have happened? Why...why did Caleb return me here? Or was it Amarie who did it? Caleb was my mate. I knew it was too early to trust him, but he'd proved to be unlike his father. Kind. Compassionate. I mean, he'd saved me. He'd ensured I got treated, got food, and was strong enough again.

There was no way he'd bother doing all that and return me here.

It just wasn't... possible.

A bright light came from the staircase, and Caleb appeared in view. Happiness swelled in my chest as he pulled the dungeon doors open and stepped inside, shutting them quietly behind him.

"Caleb," I whispered. He stopped a few meters short, staring at me, his eyes unreadable. "What...what is happening? I was sleeping in your arms one moment, and then I woke up, and I'm back here..."

"Weak..." He spat.

Pain sliced through my chest. "Huh?"

"You are weak," he muttered, stretching out his left hand to touch my jaw, his fingers light against my stitched bruises. "You're weak for me, Leora. We...we can't...we can't be together."

His words felt like a dagger stabbing into my chest. My eyes watered, and my wolf whined in pain. "What are you saying, Caleb? We're destined for each other. The Moon Goddess wants this for us. We're meant to be... together."

His eyes gleamed, and then I couldn't believe what happened next.

He burst out laughing.

A loud, long, scathing laughter that made my hackles rise.

"By the fates, you're so damn delusional, little Omega. There is no us. There will never be us! I am set to take over after my father, and I can't have a weakling for a Luna. It has never happened in the history of the Redwood Pack, and it won't start with me. I won't pass on my chance to rule because of you."

I blinked back tears as the realization hit me. The meeting with his father...this was the outcome. Alpha Brennan had placed a condition on him. Reject our bond, or lose the chance to be a future Alpha.

I fell to my knees. Fates, when would this suffering end? Just when I thought things would turn around and be good, it was only getting worse. My alpha. My mate treasured a position over loving me.

"And so," Caleb continued. "I have to do what I have to do. I'm so sorry, Leora. The Moon Goddess might want this for us, but I don't want this for myself. I can't defy my father or the pack. Not for you. Never."

Bastard, my wolf howled. Fucking spineless coward.

"I, Caleb Brennan, reject you, Leora Alabaster, as my mate and Luna. You shall remain here for a long time until my coronation with my chosen Luna is done in the future. If you want to survive, it'd do you well to accept the rejection."

Pain, like boiling water, engulfed my entire being, sending me writhing on the floor. I gnashed my teeth in anguish, crying and thrashing around as the agony wracked through my weak body. After what felt like eternity, it subsided a little. "I accept your rejection, Alpha."

It was never worth it in the end.

Never worth it.